Ecology Chapter 1

all life is interconnected

living organisms are connected with react other directly and indirectly through the environment, events affecting one organism or place affects other organisms

everything goes somewhere

There is no "away" into which waste materials disappear.

no population can increase in size forever

There are limits to the growth and resource use of every population, including our own.

there is no free lunch

means that there is always a cost for a product, organisms usually have trade offs

evolution matters

Adaptive evolution is an on-going process as environmental factors change over time

time matters

Ecosystems change over time. When we look at the world as we know it, it is easy to forget how past events may have affected our present, and how our present actions may affect the future.

space matters

local: presence/absence of species, soil salinity, nutrients in soil
regional: species pool, dispersal, climate
global: ocean currents, wind, greenhouse gases

life would be impossible without species interactions

flow of energy and nutrients

different species

respond differently to changing conditions

random perturbations can

play an important role in system health

natural systems

do not always return to their original state after a disturbance

observational field studies

- realistic spatial and temporal scale
- correlation does not = causation
- pond surveys

controlled lab experiments

Experimental groups are compared with a control group that lacks the factor being tested, limit/exclude variables not being tested (confounding factors), artifical conditions

controlled field experiments

6 ponds, 3 w/
pesticide
contamination.
6 cages per pond, 3 w/
mesh size that allowed
parasite to enter.

theoretical/mathematical models

math or charting, represents phenomena and physical processes

ecology

a scientific subdiscipline of
Biology that seeks to understand the interactions between organisms, and between organisms and their
environment